See why Porsche's hybrid 918 Spyder is a true hypercar

The hybrid hypercar boasts a scarcely believable 0 to 62 mph time of 2.6 seconds and is currently the fastest production car ever to lap the Nürburgring track in Germany.

Like direct competitors the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari, the latest hypercar form Porsche uses a combination of petrol and electric power to achieve remarkable speeds while attempting to respect the environment. For the 918 Spyder, the German carmaker has gone for the combination of a 4.6-liter V8, 608 horsepower engine alongside two electric motors — a 125 horsepower unit driving the front wheels and a 154 horsepower motor turning the rear wheels, meaning that anyone lucky enough to take delivery of the car has up to 887 horsepower on tap when his or her right foot is planted firmly in the footwell carpet.

This power, when combined with the immediate response of an electric motor means that the car can not only go from 0 to 62mph in just 2.6 seconds, the 0 to 124 miles (7.2 seconds) and 0 to 186 miles (19.9 seconds) are similarly brisk, even by supercar standards.

However, straight-line speed is only one measure of a true hypercar, how it performs in the bends is equally important and there is no better proving ground than the ‘Green Hell’ which is the Nürburgring. And in that respect, Porsche has left all competition in its wake. The ‘Weissach’ package version of the car currently holds the record for a production car lapping the 12.9 mile circuit — 6:57 minutes, making it the first road legal car to break the seven-minute barrier.

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However, despite this incredible performance, with the Weissach package fitted, the car is capable of returning up to 94 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 70 g/km.

The announcement of the official performance figures come just under a month after McLaren officially confirmed the stats for its own hybrid hypercar, the P1.

Like the Porsche, the P1 uses a V8 (although a smaller 3.8-liter unit), but coupled to a single electric motor which, when running in unison, offer 903 bph and a 0 to 60 mph time of 2.8 seconds, which is slightly slower than the Porsche. However, once past 62 mph, it leaves the German car in its wake thanks to a 0 to 124 mph time of 6.8 seconds, and a 0 to 186 mph time of 16.5 seconds — 3.4 seconds faster than the 918 Spyder. What’s more, a video was recently posted to YouTube claiming that the P1 had broken the Porsche’s Nürburgring record with a lap time of 6:47 seconds.

However, McLaren, who has made no secret that one of the goals for the P1 is to achieve a sub-seven-minute Nürburgring lap, is yet to confirm or deny if the video is real or a hoax.

So with nothing to separate the cars in terms of acceleration or performance, prospective owners will have to choose based on looks. Even the most energy-efficient or reliable hypercar is not suitable for daily use, meaning that for most owners, more time will be spent looking at the car parked outside their homes or in their multi-car garage than behind the wheel enjoying the performance.